The processing of mail for delivery is increasingly being performed by automatically controlled and operated machinery, which sorts mail pieces in accordance with the intended destination of each piece for ease and efficiency of delivery to specific delivery points or stops along a mail carrier's route. For this purpose, sorting equipment has been developed that sorts regular mail pieces into a sequence corresponding to the delivery route used by the mail carrier for delivery to individual addresses. Existing equipment has become quite effective in processing regular mail, and recent enhancements are beginning to enable some automated processing of pieces such as flats that were difficult to handle.
With the advent of the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) and Delivery Point Packaging (DPP) equipment to the Postal Authority automation program, new possibilities become practical for automation of “marriage mail,” Advo type advertisements, saturation mail, periodicals, catalogs and a variety of other mailings that are not unique to the delivery point (i.e. all recipients receive the same item). Today much of this mail in still manually cased by the carrier, since it is not “automation friendly.” Other items, with a large distribution such as periodicals must be addressed, sorted and packaged in bundles for delivery to the Postal Authority on pallets. These bundles must be broken down and collated with similar items either manually at the Delivery Unit (DU) or on flats sorting machines. At the mail manufacturing plant, a considerable amount of logistics is required and considerable expense is associated with addressing and accounting for spoilage due to equipment jams on the bindery lines and in other manufacturing steps. Postage accountability, presort rules, and barcode quality are all significant challenges for these mail types.
Further improvements in the techniques for automatically handling such flats mailings, as part of or in association with the sequence sorting, would further improve postal automation and efficiency and could present new revenue opportunities.